What Does a Sanitation Supervisor Do?

A sanitation supervisor works with a sanitation manager to ensure that the area he supervises — whether an office building or a city street — is clean and sanitary. This supervisor is in charge of the maintenance and custodial employees, making sure their jobs are completed successfully. He also has to complete his own responsibilities. A typical supervisor job usually includes things such as managing a municipal or company sanitation department, ensuring every area has been effectively cleaned during each shift or within a particular time frame. In an office setting, the job may include ensuring that trash is collected from individual desks and common areas are cleaned on a daily basis; on a municipal level, it may involve ensuring that trash from throughout the municipality is collected weekly.

Most companies will have slightly different job responsibilities that they require of the sanitation supervisor. Most also will require that the supervisor have experience in the sanitation industry to properly train and manage employees. A sanitation supervisor in a company setting is typically in charge of performing weekly inspections, documenting all findings and providing management with recommendations for improvement. The supervisor also may have to fill in as needed and do the work of absent employees in his department, which means he must know how to complete every duty and task in his department.

Sanitation supervisor job responsibilities also include scheduling sanitation employees and making sure there is appropriate coverage at all times. The supervisor will delegate work out on a daily basis, follow up to see if anyone is having trouble and ensure that the job is being done properly. He then will inspect the completed tasks. The supervisor also will check the equipment for cleanliness and safety at various times throughout the day or week. This job also entails providing all sanitation employees with coaching in regards to safety, sanitation and quality assurance.

The duties of the sanitation supervisor also consist of taking inventory and documenting the use of sanitation chemicals as well as non-chemical supplies. The supervisor orders supplies as needed. The supervisor may be asked to become familiar with the budget and ensure that department spending stays within that budget. A sanitation supervisor has many tasks and is responsible for many areas within a company, all of which ensure the safety and health of employees and customers in the building they work so dutifully to keep clean.

A sanitation supervisor must be ready and willing to lead departmental and team meetings, promote and maintain a positive and safe working environment, and ensure good employee relations. It also is the duty of the sanitation supervisor to make sure that all employees follow policies and producers at all times to avoid accidents. While the scale is somewhat larger, some sanitation supervisors are in charge of sanitation efforts on a municipal basis. This means they oversee the collection of garbage throughout a city, town or county. In addition to regular trash collection from both private and business addresses, they also may be responsible for keeping public areas such as parks clean and appealing for visitors.